The Tester 3 Episode 5: Blindfold Battle

We’re now halfway through the third season of The Tester, and the battle to earn a Production Associate position at Santa Monica Studio is really heating up. Last week’s episode found the gamers reinventing themselves as fighting game characters in a competition themed around Street Fighter X Tekken. There was action, drama, fiery special effects and hilarious over-the-top performances by the remaining contenders. If you missed it, check it out right here.

This week, the gamers don togas and head to the beach for a God of War-inspired challenge. Like Poseidon blinded by Kratos in God of War III, the gamers will be blindfolded and put to task under the watchful eye of Santa Monica Studio creative director, Todd Papy. The winners will accompany Todd for a behind-the-scenes tour of Santa Monica Studio.

As always, you can also watch the entire episode on the What’s New section of the XMB, PlayStation Home’s Theater 2 (including limited edition ‘The Tester 3′ game over hoodies), or download in glorious HD from the PlayStation Store after today’s update. And, new this week, you can watch the entire episode on the PlayStation Blog! (Please do not post spoilers!)

For those of you needing to catch up on the season, we’re holding a mid-season marathon in PlayStation Home where you can watch episodes 1-4 of The Tester 3 in Theater 6 starting today. If you missed a week of the ‘Superfan’ viewing quest, this is your chance to rejoin the journey to earn limited edition “The Tester 3” hoodies for your avatar, so don’t miss out!

Our fifth Twitter giveaway for The Tester 3 is next Monday, March 12. Follow @PlayStation to participate, and keep an eye out for a trivia question related to Episode 5. Congratulations to @PS3Gamer87 for winning yesterday’s Episode 4 prize package!

For next week, the prize package is all about God of War:

The Tester 3 t-shirt

1 month PlayStation Plus voucher

Signed God of War Limited Edition Art Book autographed by Todd Papy and team

Toy Blade of Chaos

Please remember to allow fans the chance to enjoy the show by NOT posting any spoilers in the comments below, or in the PlayStation forums.

What a joke of a show. Puzzles, debates, and testing of actual games are all that could possibly indicate that someone deserves the job in the industry as a games tester. Stuffing one’s head in a box and dressing up like a clown on the first day of a job would just get someone fired. Meh.

This is the second year of watching it and I love how Playstation takes care of this reality series. I hate watching them on regular TV…ABC, NBC and such…they aren’t that good at all. But, this is great…they get down to the point of watching this competition and the drama. Thank you Playstation…now this should be nominated for an award.

2# Yeah because he was in Season 1 and 2(sarcasm). People still watch and enjoy ths show. Egoraptor was not even fun to watch, he’s best on youtube but on Tester all he wants is more viewiers for his channel.

@Kevin, I’m not mad at you all anymore. Episodes 2 – 4 were great & completely on point. The StreetfightrerXTekken skits were hilarious & very creative.

For those few of you who have been shilling for Ego “no chin” Raptor, I’m thinking you all are the chinless one pretending to be actual PS gamers. I wouldn’t put that past that shameless self-promoter.

My money is on Reality Palez, he’s got actual skills & can do the job.

I’m eating my own words. This is the best cast out of the 3 season of The Tester, I really like everyone on the show, but I have to say Reality Pales doesn’t seem mature enough for a producer position for the studios. I feel like he has done his homework, but when it comes down to it, the gamer in him doesn’t have enough game. BTW, watching this episode made me wish I was in that interview

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Ohhhhhhhh!!!! Sometimes!!! I get a good feeling… Yeah… *stuck in my head song* I know,totally irrelevant… But that’s how much I enjoy The Tester series and the PSBlog! Woot! Woot! I luv it!! GO TESTERS GO!!! :D

Last episode had some great surprises, and iam looking forwad to this weeks episode!! I will be in PS home to check it out tonight for sure!
Man o man, trolls these days sure do know how to waste time and energy.

Love the show. I was almost pissed last week with the elimination until you eliminated the person I thought was the worst. One of my favorites is Suzkaiden. She does get crazy but I think she could be a danger to the other contestants and that’s why they don’t like her. I have a feeling though that RealityPalez will win it all. Can’t wait to watch the new episode tonight.

Of course last but definitely not the least is Meredith is looking as beautiful as ever.

Don’t even listen to the haters, Kevin. There are plenty of people who love The Tester, and I’m definitely one of them. I’ve enjoyed all three seasons and definitely hope you guys keep it going with more.

Here we go again. Is this going to be those another LATE PSN UPDATES. I would love to squeeze in couple of hours of DUST 514 before I head to bed early 2night. Have to work early 2morrow. Playing Reckoning while waiting for PSN STORE UPDATE, hope it soon.

This is why I get so upset with SONY. I work for a living and all I like is to play some games thats coming out on PSN before I head to bead or work. But I guess they can careless about us. This is why I only buy exclusives games on PSN now. I get the rest on my 360, at least MS can UPDATE their store on time ever freaking week.

What the heck, I just noticed that you guys are using the larger HD videos on the Vita now. I don’t want to download 2.5GB video files on my vita in HD. the regular 480p videos WERE perfect…300 mb or so.

Journey..yeah but we are in video game season phase 1 right now. Excellent games from all genres. Journey will be good but also will be very short. Most of you guys will finish it in less time it took to download. =/

What I don’t understand is why you whiners are saying things like, “Where’s the update? I need games to play!!!”

Don’t you already have games to play? What about the games from last week’s update that you were crying for? Did you finish those already? And when you finally get today’s new releases, are you going to be done with them by this time next week and be needing new games to play?

Games don’t get old that fast. I know because I still play the old NES games that I played when I was a kid and they’re still just as fun today. Blocky graphics, no online play, a basic controller with 2 buttons… and it’s still fun.

I don’t understand you whiners. I really don’t. Which is probably a good thing, actually…

So Sony we looking at another midnight release for the PS Store Update this week, Not that I mind staying up till late in the A.M. on a weekday… but i’m sure other people here have jobs to get up for in the morning..

I think this Tester show, in its current format, has pretty much run its course. The back-to-back eliminations were appropriate considering that the overall pecking order among the cast seemed pretty well established from the outset. So, we just have to watch the fat be trimmed until we’re down to the 3-4 candidates that someone might actually want to hire.

In a future series, perhaps consider casting people who work, or supplement their incomes, as game testers already. Then, give them the opportunity to compete for a production-level position. The goofball appeal of the show’s current iteration is feeling pretty tired at this point.

New game smell doesn’t die down that quickly either. Back in the NES and SNES days, my brother and I loved the smell of new game boxes. We used to open the flap, stick our noses in and take a big whiff… ahhh… yes…